Arkansas will be a dangerous matchup for Kansas in the second round. Uber-athletic teams like TCU and Texas have given Kansas problems, and Arkansas is in that class. KU is not great at its tags in pick-and-roll coverage, and that’s an area Arkansas is built to exploit. KU’s one-on-one defense, particularly the defense of freshman Gradey Dick will be key. In its 73-63 win over Illinois, Arkansas had only four assists and played a lot of iso ball. The Razorbacks are one of the most talented teams in the country and dangerous when they play to their talent. Defensively, they’re long and get a ton of deflections. It’s the freshmen that get all the hype, but veterans Ricky Council (18 points and 10 rebounds) and Devo Davis (16 points) were the stars in Thursday’s win.
Sounds about right. I haven’t watched the Prairie Chickens much but I don’t think Dick is much of a defender, and we’ll have to keep him from going off from deep.
Is he saying playing a lot of iso ball is a good thing? Or KU is vulnerable to that? I guess he’s saying today we were at our best attacking the rim on our pick and roll drives. I’m wondering were all four of our assists lobs for dunks off the pick and roll drive drawing the help defender? By the way, that is impressive that we can win with only four assists. I hope we get more assists than that Saturday but Muss is going to be right on the money again about it coming down to our defense. We mainly have to worry about stopping KU from putting up a ton of points. If they don’t have a dominant front court protecting the rim, and we can rebound on them, we’ll have a shot.
I think we have better than a “shot,” especially if Nick will let the game come to him and stop forcing it.
We have every bit as much talent as they do.
Who can Dick guard on our team?
I have waited a long time for this.
Can’t wait!
Muss knows what this game means. Almost like eliminating about 7 losses when we win.
It’s a new season, and we still have a TON of talent. Self knows how much we have.
Will he coach?
Kansas doesn’t jump off the tape for me. The Wilson kid will be a handful he’s 6’8 and just a fantastic scorer but we have the length to bother him something he’s probably not used to. Dick if you leave him open it’s pretty much going to make it so that will have to be a big time emphasis.
If we can play 40 minutes of solid smart basketball and not give them points like we seem to do everybody we can win this basketball game I think our athleticism will indeed bother them just like it did Illinois
Dick is not a good defensive player but he shoots the ball well from everywhere. Shut him down and we can darn sure win this one. In fact, I think this is a great matchup for us like the Zag’s last year.
Yea…Jeff told me he posted it somewhere. Not sure where. Right after the Hogs won I was on the way to church for a church council meeting…and a lady pulled out right in front of me. I whacked her at 35 mph. My eardrum is a little jacked up…which for a conductor is scary